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We’ve heard about politicians fighting for seats in the run up to an election but Kilkenny’s councillors took the meaning of the phrase a step further when a huge dispute erupted after the Fine Gael, Labour, Green and Independent councillors sat in the seats usually sat upon by Fianna Fail members of the Kilkenny County Council this month.

Fine Gael general secretary, Tom Curran, has announced that Cllr Mark Cooney and Cllr John Dolan are to join the party’s local election team for Westmeath County Council in the Athlone Local Electoral Area.

Less than seven weeks from the elections and things are hotting up in the race for Westport Town Council with the announcement of new candidates from Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, and Labour.

The prospect of Sinn Féin holding the balance of power in Mayo County Council after this June’s local election has seen the party been approached by both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil to do a deal with them according to sitting Cllr Gerry Murray. Yesterday Sinn Féin launched their four candidates for the county council elections where the party hope to boost their numbers from their current solitary seat held by Cllr Murray, with Castlebar Town Cllr Therese Ruane running in the Castlebar area, Westport Town Councillor Dave Keating in the Westport area and Rose Conway Walsh who lost out on getting a seat in the last elections narrowly running again in the Belmullet area. The launch was also attend by party leader Gerry Adams and EU Election candidate Padraig MacLochlainn.

Westport has one of the smallest fields running in the county for the June 5 election, with eight candidates putting their hats in the ring for the four seats. The major shift on the political landscape from the last local elections is the absence of one Frank Chambers from the ticket. The Newport based auctioneer has been a mainstay of politics in this area for a number of years, but with the redrawing of the boundaries seeing half the town of Newport being given over to Belmullet, Chambers decided to step away from the political circle. That leaves the three sitting councillors, Margaret Adams, Austin Francis O’Malley and John O’Malley, fighting it out with five others for the seats. The other declarations for the election are Caroline Nevin (Fianna Fáil), Peter Flynn (Fine Gael), Keith Martin (Labour), Dave Keating (Sinn Féin) and independent candidate Andy Wilson.

Labour Party candidate for the Kilkenny City area, Sean Butler, has welcomed the vision set out by his Party for local government reform, saying the county manager role should be abolished. "For far too long the role of local government has been overlooked in Ireland. We should start with democratic accountability being returned to local councillors.

Fine Gael now has an overwhelming majority on Mayo County Council following last Friday’s Local Elections. With 17 seats on the local authority, Enda Kenny’s crew will occupy the chairmanship of the council for the next five years with Ballyhaunis native John Cribbin tipped to be installed as the first Cathaoirleach.

Meetings were under way last evening as both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil attempted to secure a majority grouping on the Galway County Council ahead of the local authority’s annual meeting tomorrow.

As the newly elected Westmeath County Council meets for the first time later today, it looks likely that, for the first time in years, Fine Gael will be in control of all three local authorities in the county.

Cllr Mark Cooney was unanimously elected as mayor of Athlone at the Town Council’s AGM this week.